Knapp’s building restoration work will soon poke into daylight

In the next two weeks, eagle-eyed downtown lunch eaters will be able to spot the first visible sign of work on Lansing’s next big renovation project, the conversion of the historic Knapp’s building into a mixed-use business, retail and residential slab.

The 1937 Streamline Moderne landmark, a department store until 1980 and idle since 2002, has sucked up its fair share of dirt and corrosion. Looking for a way to brighten up the façade, historic preservationists will punch out a test section of second-floor glass bricks on the east face of the building, facing Washington Square, and replace them with new ones.

“When we put new glass block in, it will start to sparkle again,” preservation specialist Elisabeth Knibbe, of Ann Arbor-based Quinn Evans Architects, said. “I think you’re going to see the potential of that in that sample. We’re pretty excited about that.”

The National Register of Historic Places lists Knapp’s as “a landmark in the progress of the modern movement in architecture in Michigan.” The building’s clean lines and bright colors zoom out of a long-gone era when locomotives, ocean liners, automobiles and diners were designed and built in high style.

The original glass bricks are ribbed, or textured, and pitted with grime. On the test section, the preservation team will use clear glass bricks.

The preservation team wants to find out whether the change in material from ribbed glass bricks to clear ones will change the appearance of the façade. That call will be up to the State Historic Preservation Office and the National Park Service, watchdogs of the building’s historic designation.

“Is the fact that the block is ribbed a character-defining feature, or is it just important that it’s glass block?” Knibbe asked. “What really matters is its effect on the historic character of the building.”

Knapp’s is very large for a Streamline Moderne creation — a spiffy Art Deco diner on a Queen Mary scale. Its dynamic shell is a multi-layer Jell-O mold of glass bricks alternating with shiny yellow and blue maul macotta, or ceramic slabs faced with concrete.

When the glass issue is settled, Knibbe said, the maul macotta is the next field of battle. Many of the building’s shiny plates are sagging, detaching and even flapping in the May breeze. Earlier this year, restorers drilled test holes through the wall from inside the building and found that the underlying concrete is intact in some areas but crumbling away in others.

A metal rain screen system, with joint covers that match the original seams, is ready to be deployed where needed.

“We have found a replacement system where we think we can do a pretty dead ringer for the original,” Knibbe said. “We’ve got great color matches. I’m going to submit those to the state and the feds for approval.”

The plan is to fill that shiny shell with another layered Jell-O of mixed uses, beginning with retail and restaurant space on the first floor. Knapp’s owners George and Louis Eyde will move their East Lansing development company into the finished building, which also will house a small business incubator run by the Lansing Economic Development Corp., with a layer of apartments on the top floor. The fifth floor is set back, like the deck of a ship, so the apartments will have patios.

“The most interesting thing in the building is the atrium we’re putting in the center,” Knibbe said. “It’s turning out to be a nice feature that will let a lot of light in.”

Bob Trezise, president and CEO of the LEDC, said talks are under way with several prospective tenants, but declined to name them until deals are sealed.

“You don’t see it on the building, but we’ve spent a great deal of time, money and energy spent on moving this project forward,” Mark Clouse, general counsel for the Eydes, said.

A completed schematic design was “the first major architectural step,” Knibbe said. Another round of cost estimation is underway.

Initial estimates of the project’s cost hovered near $20 million, but more recent estimates set it closer to $40 million.

The project floats on another — invisible — Jell-O of financial incentive layers that parlay the building’s historic status and downtown location into state and federal tax credits.

To Knibbe’s and Trezise’s relief, the project’s Michigan Business Tax credit was locked in before Gov. Rick Snyder’s administration cut the credit. The project also secured an enhanced state historic credit, limited to three projects a year, before that credit was also cut.

“We were really glad we got the special consideration last year,” Knibbe said. “We may be the last project that gets it.”

Glass tests and schematic drawings are one thing, but to steam away from the pier and begin heavy work, the S.S. Knapp’s is awaiting word on a federal Brownfield Economic Development Initiative, or BEDI, grant.

By now, Trezise said, the federal government should have opened the window for proposals on the remaining $17 million of BEDI grants nationally.

“That was supposed to happen in December, and here we are in May, still waiting,” he said.

Several clocks are ticking at once, Trezise said.

“(The Eydes) are paying taxes, they’re incurring expense, the building continues to deteriorate, and potential tenants get nervous.”

To turn the BEDI over, developers need to receive official notice that funds have been released, complete an application and submit it for review.

“It’s not a good scenario, but it’s manageable for a number of more months,” he said.

In the meantime, Clouse said, there’s no choice but to pick away at the preliminaries.

“If we just sit back and wait for every single item to line up perfectly, nothing is ever going to happen,” he said.